part of the ceremony of the ancient funerals.

It was customary for persons of quality, among the ancient Greeks and Romans, to institute games, with all sorts of exercises, to render the death of their friends more remarkable. This practice was generally received, and is frequently mentioned by ancient writers. Patroclus's funeral games take up the greatest part of one of Homer's Iliads; and Agamemnon's ghost is introduced by the same poet, telling the ghost of Achilles, that he had been a spectator at a great number of such solemnities.

The celebration of these games among the Greeks mostly consisted of horse-races; the prizes were of different sorts and value, according to the quality and magnificence of the person that celebrated them. The garlands given to victors on this occasion were usually of parsley, which was thought to have some particular relation to the dead.

Those games, among the Romans, consisted chiefly of processions; and sometimes of mortal combats of gladiators around the funeral pile. They, as well as the Greeks, had also a custom, though very ancient, of cutting the throats of a number of captives before the pile, as victims to appease the manes of the deceased. Caesar relates, that the Gauls had this custom.

The funeral games were abolished by the emperor Claudius.